Overboard from a Santa Cruz 27

Tammy and I were crewing on a Santa Cruz 27 for a Sunday race at the FWBC. It was a beautiful day with enough wind to keep the boat on a solid plane with the chute up. The fun started on a dead run that required a gybe mid leg.

Let’s just say the gybe was less than perfect. We got the boat turned, but had a little broach on the new gybe. We flagged the chute and dumped the main to get the boat back on its feet. In the process, the spinnaker sheet got over the back end of the boom. Normally this is easy to fix, but we had been late with our gybe and were reaching more than running. If I pulled the main in to reach the problem, the boat wanted to broach again. With boat speed in the mid teens we were closing on the leeward mark in a hurry, so it was now time to drop the chute. Now it gets fun.

We decided to drop early and got the jib hoisted. Tammy was on the spinnaker sheet winch, and I standing in the middle of the cockpit with my hand on the sheet between the block and the boom. I was telling the skipper to run the guy so I could clear the sheet after the load was removed. Then we could do our normal leeward drop. The skipper was telling Tammy to run the sheet, and I was telling Tammy that she couldn’t run the sheet. Do you see the problem developing? I was used to being the skipper, and we were in the middle of a complete communication break down.

What I didn’t know (and no one was telling me) was that they had a complete over ride on the guy winch and were unable to get the guy loose. As the various voices continued to give Tammy conflicting instructions, she eventually decided to go with the skippers instructions, but she gave me no warning. Since I was preparing to haul on the sheet, I had it firmly grasped with both hands. As soon as Tammy released the sheet from the winch I found myself holding the sheet with no help.

The first time I had an idea of what was going wrong was when the boom hit me across the thighs. I continued upward clearing the first two battens. Then I cleared the back of the main and headed off to leeward. I impacted the water at least 20 feet away from the boat. Now the funny stuff starts. I had been thrown far enough away that the chute collapsed, and I was still gripping the sheet. I always told my crew if you have a grip on any part of the boat, hang on for dear life, and I took my own advice. Of course, just because the chute was collapsed didn’t mean the boat stopped. It wasn’t long before I was far enough behind the boat that my weight on the sheet refilled the chute. Since the chute was capable of pulling the 27 foot boat onto a plane, it had no problem yanking me out of the water and skimming me across the waves. That was fun for a few seconds until my leverage pulled the mast over, the boat broached and came to a near stop. The boat stood up and started down the course again until I filled the chute and repeated the process.

We made three of four cycles between me skimming across the waves and the boat laying on its side. On the last cycle, with the boat well past 45 degrees of heel, the skipper yelled that I was going to have to release the sheet before they could do anything. He actually promised they would come back and get me!

I let go, and it took them a few minutes to get things cleared away and the boat turned around. I wasn’t worried until they started back. With main and jib pulling on a close reach they were approaching at the speed of light from my view. The biggest crew member was hanging over the side with an outstretched arm. I knew enough physics to know that if I grabbed his hand, either my arm was getting pulled off, or he was getting pulled overboard to join me. I declined the offer. Tammy did throw me a life jacket as they roared off to figure out plan B. Plan B was a well executed slow approach and stop to windward, and I was back on board.

Tammy still gets the chuckles today thinking about me being drug across the water. It seems I sailed with a Tilley hat, which she claimed lowered my IQ at leas t20 points. If I lowered my head, the brim was pushed down over my face and ears. If I raised my head, the brim flipped back and looked even goofier. I’m so glad I was able to entertain her for all these years.